Pressured
by ShiNoPerusona
Summary: Hamuko can't deal with the stress of facing Nyx, but Minato is there to comfort and encourage her instead of the other way around for once. One-shot, MinatoxHamuko, fluff.


**AUTHOR'S NOTES: Huh. I'm updating a lot sooner than I thought I would. I'm sure no one minds, though!**

**I found parts of this a little corny admittedly, but hey, it's fluff. If anything, it's pretty much just a field of corn anyway. Also, for someone who ships this pairing, I've posted surprisingly few stories featuring this pairing! (That might be because I haven't uploaded many stories to begin with... But that's just me.) Anyway, read with a clear conscious and critical mind (that means I want reviews). Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Persona and Atlus do not belong to me.**

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><p>Minato heard the sound of sobbing as he entered the vicinity of Hamuko's room.<p>

As he stood in front of the door to her room, he knocked. No response. He knocked slightly harder, but her sobs were incessant.

"Hamuko? Hamuko, is something wrong?" Minato said through the door. It wasn't like her to cry. Normally, whatever ordeal she had to confront was faced head-on by her; she never showed any signs of weakness or faltering, and Minato admired her for that. Stone-faced as he was, he would never be as courageous, never as _strong_, as her.

However, today appeared to be a different story.

"Hamuko, I'm coming in." Minato finally said, after listening to her cry for another minute. As he closed the door behind him, he saw his friend curled up in a ball on her bed, tears gushing out of her eyes uncontrollably. Immediately, he rushed over to her side to comfort her. He bent down beside the bed to level his face with hers.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" Minato asked soothingly. He received no answer, but she calmed down somewhat at hearing his voice.

After waiting a few more moments, she finally calmed down enough to answer Minato's question. "I… I'm alright, Minato," she sniffled. "It's just…"

"Is it Nyx?" Minato inquired. Judging from her silence, Minato assumed he was right about that.

"Y-Yeah. I was just wondering…" Hamuko sat up and threw her feet over the side of the bed. "Nyx is supposedly an undefeatable foe, right? Ryoji said the Fall would be inevitable and that it couldn't be stopped. I know we all resolved to fight back no matter what, but…" She suddenly turned her head to Minato. "What if we can't stop it?! What'll happen to our friends, the rest of the world?!" Hamuko shouted. "What'll happen to _us_?!"

"…"

"And if we all die in the fight against Nyx, then the world is doomed! There's so much pressure, I-I…" She broke into tears again and buried her face in Minato's chest. He hummed thoughtfully. "It's just… Why did this happen? All of a sudden, this burden was thrust on us, and we have to fight for the future of the world. Why did it have to be us?"

"…"

"I don't want to die, Minato. I don't want to have to fight against Death and lose everything if we fail."

"…"

"And…" She lifted her face from Minato and stared into his eyes. "I don't want to lose you, Minato."

He closed the distance between their faces and the two shared a passionate kiss. After a moment, the two broke the kiss. "But we have to do this. We caused this to happen, we've endangered the world, and the world will be doomed for sure if we don't do something about it."

Hamuko stayed silent and listened to Minato.

"Despite all this, I don't resent Ryoji. I'd have figured after what he told us and what his role was in all this, I would be mad. Mad at him for bringing down the end of the world. But I don't." Minato continued. "In a way, our futures were already decided for us the moment we awakened our personas."

Hamuko's eyes widened.

"In a way, we were destined to do this. As if some evil entity was leading us down the path to ruin, but we have to deal with it. You're the one who always says to tackle things full force, so why don't we do the same here?" The blue-haired boy added with a smirk.

"Y-You're right!" Hamuko exclaimed, standing up, suddenly full of energy and vigor. "We hafta do this, whether we like it or not! It sucks, but we gotta do it anyway!"

"Ha, that's the spirit!" Minato chuckled, standing up with her. "I wasn't used to you being all sulky and sad. I'm glad you're back to normal."

"'Course I am!" Hamuko replied happily, putting her hands on her hips. "You'd have been lost long ago had I not kept cheering you up! I swear, sometimes you make me think you're depressed! I thought you'd never be happy in life!"

Minato couldn't help but crack a smile at her comment. "Truth be told, I have found something-rather, some_one_ who's made me happy. And they're the person who's kept me going for this long."

"Hm? Who is this person, Minato?" She tilted her head curiously. Minato chuckled and looked through the window in Hamuko's room to the sky.

"I'm fighting for that person. Someone who's a girl, has auburn hair and stunning red eyes." Minato began, watching the sky turn a vibrant orange as the sun began to set. "She's a bit feisty and maybe even reckless, but her heart's in the right place. She's also probably one of the strongest people I've met," he looked back and locked eyes with Hamuko. "She's also the person I love most in the world."

Hamuko was confused at first, but her eyes widened and she began to blush as she came to a realization. "D-Do you mean me?" She stuttered, pointing a finger at herself.

"And I thought _I _was dense," Minato rolled his eyes. "Of course I mean you. Who else would there be?" Hamuko pouted but soon broke into giggles, and Minato followed with his own chuckles.

"But seriously… Thanks, Minato," Hamuko looked at Minato. "I never thought I'd be the one who needed to be picked up by you, but I think I'm finally ready." Her eyes became determined. "I'm ready to face Nyx."

"I've been waiting for you to say that," Minato nodded. "And I was ready a long time ago, so it's about time you caught up." He teased, to which Hamuko pouted playfully.

"Yeah, yeah. Just wait 'till we get to the top of Tartarus. I'll shove you off just for saying that." Hamuko joked, to which Minato laughed.

The two heard a knock on the door. "Are you ready to head to Tartarus, Hamuko-chan?" Yukari's voice came through muffled behind the door. "It's time to fight Nyx…"

"Yeah, Hamu-tan! We gotta go soon, or we'll miss our date with Nyx!" Junpei shouted.

Minato faced Hamuko. "Shall we?" He offered a hand to her, which she graciously accepted, and the two opened the door and walked out of the room, ignoring Yukari's and Junpei's incredulous and baffled looks as they passed them.

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><p><strong>AUTHOR'S NOTES: Not bad for a few hours' work. I sort of had to will myself to start writing, otherwise I wouldn't have updated for at least another month (possibly later!) so now that I wrote something, I can goof off for another long while! AWESOME! I am a DEDICATED and DILIGENT fanfiction author! I have a very bright future career in writing at this rate!<strong>

**But seriously, I want to improve here! Leave a review, not only to show your support but also to help improve my writing! If you see something that could be better about this, please mention it! If anything, just tell me if it's incredibly amazing or horrifyingly terrible; it'll at least give me an idea of where I'm going! (Don't mention that I should stop being lazy. I know about that already, thank you very much.)**

**Anyway, that's all from me for now! See you next time I post a story! Hopefully during your lifetime!**


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